The Crimson women will race for a ticket to nationals this weekend (photo courtesy Athletic Communications).

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The Harvard women's sailing team will sail for a ticket to the nationals this weekend at the 43rd Reed Trophy, New England Championship. The No. 14 Crimson coeds will send its freshmen class to the 73rd Priddy Trophy, New England Freshmen Championship and compete at the 84th Boston Dingy Club Challenge, 29th Admirals' Cup and 11th George Morris Trophy.

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About the 43rd Reed Trophy New England's top women teams will converge on the Thames River this weekend, racing in Coast Guard's fleet of FJs and 420s. The event is one of the most crucial of the season as the top-two teams will earn themselves nonstop tickets to the ICSA Women's National Championships, which will be held at Navy May 27-30. The teams that finish third through seventh will move on to compete in a semifinal championship where they will have to finish in the top nine to move on to nationals.

The Crimson will attempt to snap a three year draught of qualifying this weekend, as the last Harvard team to earn an automatic berth to nationals was the 2010 squad which placed second in the qualifier. Last season, the Crimson claimed 12th in the New England Championships.

About the 73rd Priddy Trophy Harvard's Class of 2017 will travel to Rhode Island to race at the 73rd Priddy Trophy for the New England Freshmen Championship this weekend. The one-division regatta will be sailed in 420s starting at 9:30 a.m. each day.

This fall the Crimson's rookies turned in a third place performance at the Nickerson Trophy, the ICSA's freshmen championships.

About the 84th Boston Dingy Club Challenge The Boston Dinghy Cup, the oldest trophy in collegiate sailing, is raced for at the birthplace of modern collegiate sailing, the Charles River. Three divisions will rotate between MIT's and Harvard's fleets of Fireflies and FJs throughout the weekend. Last season, Harvard took seventh.

About the 29th Admirals' Cup The 29th Admirals' Cup, hosted by U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, will see 20 teams, including eight ranked in the top-20, clash on Kings Point. The three divisions in the intersectional event will compete in FJs. Harvard last sailed in the 27th edition of the Admirals' Cup in 2011 where it finished seventh.

About the 11th George Morris Trophy A dozen teams will compete at Boston University's George Morris Trophy on the Charles River. Teams will take the water at 10:15 a.m. each day in FJs. A year ago, Harvard finished sixth at the intersectional.

Forecast Waters in Connecticut and Rhode Island will see northwest breezes of 5 to 10 knots increasing to 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon on Saturday. Northeast winds of 5 to 10 knots will open sailing on Sunday before turning into southeast gulls in afternoon. In Boston, sailors will face northeast squalls of 5 to 10 knots increasing to 10 to 15 knots in the afternoon. The second day of racing will feature northeast gusts of 5 to 10 knots.

Coming Up Harvard will sail at the 69th Coast Guard Alumni Bowl where the winner will be crowned NEISA Fleet Race Champion. Yale will host the championship regatta on the Thames River.

Last Time on the Water Harvard's coed sailing team turned in three top-five performances at four regattas April 12-13. The Crimson finished third at the Salvin Hill Invitational and the Thompson Trophy and placed fifth at the 70th Greater Boston Oberg Trophy. Harvard also competed at the Own, Mosbacher and Knapp Trophies, where it finished eighth.

Rank and File The Crimson coeds currently sit 14th in the Sailing World's college rankings, presented by Gill Sailors of the Sea while the women's squad have received votes for the first time this spring in the April 9 poll. The coeds were initially ranked 19th in the national preseason poll.

Harvard is one-of-nine NEISA schools to make the coed national list as Yale (2), Roger Williams (5), Boston College (7), Tufts (9), and Dartmouth (10) sit in the top 10, while MIT (13), and Connecticut College (16) round out the conference's coed ranked schools.

Charles Chargin' The Crimson has competed on the Charles River 15 times throughout the 2013-14 campaign and finished in the top-10 in every outing except two. Harvard's two victories came on the local water.

Olympic Model Athlete The International Sailing Federation Association named Harvard freshman Juan Carlos Perdomo as one-of-28 experienced sailors to serve as an Athlete Role Model for the 2nd Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, China August 16-28. The Miami, Fla., native looks to transfer his knowledge and experience to the next wave of youth champions and Olympic heroes as a key role in supporting, mentoring and offering advice to the 100 young sailors racing across four events on Jinniu Lake.

Sailor of the Week
For his second-place finish at the ICSA Singlehanded Championships, Juan Carlos Perdomo was named the New England Intercollegiate Sailing Association Coed Sailor of the Week Nov. 12. The weekly accolade was the first of the freshman's career and first weekly award presented to a Crimson sailor this season.

Leading the FleetMichael O'Connor is entering his 17th season at the helm of the Harvard sailing teams. With O'Connor at the helm, Harvard won the national team race championships in 2002 and 2003, as well as the 2003 national coed championship and the women's national title in 2005.

Captains of the Ships
Sophomores Sydney Karnovsky and Andrew Mollerus have been elected captain for the 2014 campaign. Karnovsky will lead the women's squad while Mollerus takes on the leadership responsibilities of the coeds.